By SUE RYAN
News staff writer
December 6, 2007

Hood River County Commissioners were the final of three local agencies to approve a garbage rate increase for next year.

They took action Monday night on the proposal from Waste Connections, Inc. The company runs the Hood River transfer station and provides garbage service to residents within the county, the city of Hood River and the city of Cascade Locks.

Rates go up by 5 percent starting Jan. 1, 2008. Waste Connections District Manager Erwin Swetnam said that rates generally go up by 3 percent each year under a Consumer Price Index factor built into the contract. But this year, several costs contributed to the increase.

“The biggest drive behind the request is the increasing cost of fuel,” Swetnam said.

Waste Connections, Inc. paid an average of $2.45 per gallon of fuel during the first quarter of 2007. That amount continued to climb to $3.10 per gallon of fuel when the contract proposal was submitted and continues to increase.

“Today we had fuel delivered and it cost $3.18,” Swetnam said.

The increasing cost of raw materials of steel and petroleum-based products such as the blue recycling bins has also increased during 2007.

Wasco County has a 2 percent landfill increase cost effective Jan. 1, which will pass onto Waste Connections and subsequently Hood River customers as part of the adopted rate increase.

The company is also facing an increase in its health care insurance, and its annual salary increases to employees. A free recycling program has proven so popular that it has also increased costs for Waste Connections.

On Wednesdays, customers can bring yard debris to the transfer station for free. Before 2003, the waste had gone to landfills. Now the company grinds the matter and takes it to the Portland/Vancouver market for compost. The cost to transport it is up $25 per ton.

County Administrator David Meriwether said in the future that may change if the county pursues development of renewable energy.

“Possibly it could be converted to biomass,” Meriwether said.

No one besides Swetnam spoke at the public hearing on the rate increase.